Infamous Duba Lions...
 

Who has had the pleasure & awe of seeing the Duba Lions, famous for evolving to prey strictly on cape buffalo? Apparently, if you go to the Duba Plains area of Botswana, you have a high probability of seeing a pride of lions stalking & killing their only source of food - the great cape buffalo. These lions were the basis for the 2006 Dereck & Beverly Joubert documentary "Relentless Enemies." I'm curious as to if anyone can vouch for these famed sightings? Oh, and during my research of the area, I came across the following expose' on the Duba Lions - a bit dated (from 6/06), but relevant & fascinating nonetheless! I can only venture a guess as to the reasoning of the lioness posing as a babysitter for the other lion mothers, only to use the opportunity to kill their cubs.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...=&ito=1490

This post contains recent video of the Duba lions.

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34941825


The purple part of this post is about Duba from my Aug 2006 trip. I included this same link in your other more general post on Botswana.

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34859832


If your trip is for 2007, don’t delay too long in making your decision or the camps will be filled.

LionQueen: It is absolutely for real. See this link for the statistics during a 3 year study

http://www.wilderness-safaris.com/ne...item_id=394213

More than 80 kills during the three Septembers so its very close to a kill a day during that month, and over 600 kills (approx. 450 being buffalo) in the three years. Keep in mind that on an extremely rare day they have killed 6 buffalo on one hunt so its not necessarily going to really be 1 a day but you can see that kills are frequently witnessed!

That Daily Mail article and some other things out there contain some hyperbole such as there is no way the Duba Lions are close to becoming their own subspecies and they do eat plenty of other species too but by far the majority of their meals are buffalo.

I spent 3 nights in January 2003 and was one of the people who did not see any kills but I did see 5 males pushing the herd of about 1,000 buffalo only to abandon the hunt when confronted by 4 males of another pride and that wasn't even my favorite lion sighting at Duba. It was my most outstanding camp experience but you should be aware that it is not a diverse area -- it really is mostly about lions and buffalo! There will be a few other herbivores here or there, ocassional breeding herd of elephant, and if you are very lucky a hyena or aardwolf den but this place is not diverse compared to most Botswana camps.

By the way it is possible to get James, the author of the article as you guide. No one knows it like he does so if you do choose to go there I would recommend requesting him.

James 007 is The Man. It was Predator who made me aware of him.

Duba plains is for real. One of the best places i have ever been and recommend it highly for any safari goer. Intimate with only 5-6 tents, huge remote concession, community owned and very flexible scheduling to optimize your chances of seeing the prides hunt. and interesting enough, good at times (Dec-Feb) when a lot of botswana camps are low season bc flood water is at its lowest and therefore you can reach far ends of the concession. But the best time to visit is late sept. Make sure to book for minimum of 3 days.

bookmarking